Webby Award Finalists Worth the Click

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If there's one thing I love, it's award season. The Golden Globes, Oscars—it's all one big dramatic sweep of alluring competition. But then, sadly, it's over and I feel deflated … that is until May, when the Webby Awards are announced! True, it may not have the cache of the Academy, but these awards are fun, interactive and, better yet, useful. Whether it's mindless entertainment or a site that can aid your business, the Webby Awards honor fantastic ideas that people—some famous, some not—actually like.

Established in 1996, there are a few grand awards (Webby Person of the Year, Lifetime Achievement), but the big show is the four main categories—Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile Web—with two awards for each: the Webby, selected and then voted upon by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (a hodge-podge of top-tier writers, editors and celeb luminaries); and the People's Voice Award, selected by users voting online.

BillShrink.com didn't make it past being a nominee, but that should be up for debate. This clean, easy-to-navigate site is a terrific resource for evaluating and maximizing your current spending and saving habits for credit cards, gas, savings and CDs and cell phones. The only downside is that you have to enter your email to access these evaluations, but even so, it's a handy website for financially-minded veterans and neophytes alike.

This People's Voice Winner is hands-down one of the best sites to find its way on the web. Conversational and funny, it was launched in June 2008 by 30-year-old Neil Pasricha, featuring a weekly post in honor of the simple, mostly silly joys of life. Pasricha started the blog (now a book, published last month) after a close friend died and his marriage ended. He transformed that pain into an inspiring treasure trove of optimism, from calling "mulligans" on a Saturday morning and going back to bed, to "moving forward and moving on" from personal setbacks.

Website: www.SesameStreet.org
Category: Family/Parenting
Sesame Street has pushed far past being just a show, with this colorful and interactive Webby Award-winning site that offers engaging content for parents and children. It's full of learning-oriented games, activities and entertaining videos, plus there's a parents channel with helpful tips for a variety of subjects, such as grief, potty time and healthy eating. Just be sure you have a fast Internet connection—with all of the content, you'll need it.

Category: Fashion
Wrangler Europe took the top Webby prize for this site featuring its Blue Bell Spring/Summer 2010 men's collection. Designed by Kokokaka, the site features a flip-book of sorts, showcasing the latest collection with amazing stop-motion capability. For each look, you can click and drag your mouse left and right across the screen to make the model move: running, falling, unzipping a jacket. It's riveting, and not just because you're looking at gorgeous male models, many with shirts you can take off!

Website: www.CheeseandBurger.com
Category: Food & Beverage
For this foodie, it's a shame this site was only a nominee. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board touting the "Cheese & Burger Society," the clever, tongue-in-cheek site offers a vintage-looking Rolodex filled with outrageous burgers and info on how each is made (complete with mock-'50s voice over). Lovingly devoted to lavish burgers, each creation uses a bevy of fixings and Wisconsin cheese, such as the Mona Lisa (beef patty, sun-dried tomatoes, Sicilian olives, pancetta, garlic mayo and Gorgonzola) and the Sheboygan, with Wisconsin cheese curds, beef patty, bratwurst, onions and beer mustard. It's not for the faint of heart—or vegetarians, for that matter.